June 12, 1998
PRESS STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL K. POWELL,
DISSENTING IN PART
Re: Fifth Order on Reconsideration and Fourth Report and Order, Federal-State Joint
Board on Universal Service, CC Docket No. 96-45.
Today, the Commission takes an important step in its implementation of the universal
service mandates of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which it is our duty to implement.
I fully recognize the benefits of the programs that are the subject of this Order. In
particular, I recognize the importance of access to advanced services to the education of the
next generation of Americans.
Nevertheless, I will issue a separate statement dissenting in part from this Order
because I believe the Commission should, in particular, suspend collections for the Schools
and Libraries program temporarily in order to resolve the funding questions that loom over
all aspects of universal service -- including the new high cost support mechanism --
simultaneously in an integrated proceeding. The Act requires that we balance the interests of
several constituencies in addition to those represented by these programs in our
implementation of universal service, just as the Act requires that we balance the goals of
universal service against the other procompetitive, deregulatory provisions of the Act. In
sum, I would strike a different balance than that struck by the majority. Yet I support the
general direction of the changes made in this Order regarding the scope and timing for
funding the Schools and Libraries program, in particular, and I commend the majority for
having the courage to institute these changes.